Syndie Insider

Warner Bros.' The Ellen DeGeneres Show has already seen notable performance improvements in two markets where it scored upgrades at the beginning of the year. In Detroit, Ellen jumped from a 1.7 rating/4 share average on Viacom's WWJ-TV at 9 a.m. to a 7.2/19 on Monday, Jan. 5 on Post Newsweek's NBC affiliate WDIV-TV at 10 a.m., making it Detroit's highest-rated talk show that day. Ellen replaces NBC Enterprises'The John Walsh Show in the market. In Houston, Ellen had been averaging a 0.3/1 on independent KNWS-TV at 5 p.m. Moving to Post-Newsweek's NBC affiliate KPRC-TV at 10 a.m., the show scored a 1.9/5 on Jan. 5. The two upgrades boosted Ellen's overall metered-market average to a 2.8/8, a 12% gain in rating from the show's previous four-week average of 2.5/7. That performance also is a 17% increase from its lead-in and a 22% jump from its year-ago time-period average.

Sony Pictures Television and General Mills are teaming up to promote the DVD release and syndicated run of The King of Queens.

The promotion, valued at some $9 million, also will highlight three classic Sony TV shows: Mad About You, Barney Miller and The Donna Reed Show. All four shows will be promoted on General Mills' Total, Total Brown Sugar & Oats, Total Raisin Bran, Oatmeal Crisp Almond and Oatmeal Crisp Raisin, with single-episode DVDs of one of the four shows included on the cereal boxes.

"The General Mills partnership provides us with valuable visibility and sampling opportunities for The King of Queens as February sweeps approaches, and showcases other classic SPT titles to a new generation of viewers," said SPT Executive Vice President, Marketing, Robert Oswaks.

The promotion with General Mills marks the fourth time Sony has worked with an outside company to promote King of Queens. It partnered with Hungry Man TV dinners, Kellogg's Pop-Tarts Pastry Swirls and Days Inn when the show launched in syndication last September.